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Why is Lee Anderson So Close to a Reclaim Party-backing GB News Presenter?

Max Colbert and Josiah Mortimer explore the Conservative Party Deputy Chairman’s links to the hard-right former lad’s mag editor

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GB News faces a barrage of Ofcom investigations into allegations of polarised and misleading output.

One of those investigations concerns an episode of Laurence Fox’s show on the “anti-woke” channel – a broadcast that was guest hosted by former deputy Reclaim Party leader Martin Daubney. 

The show featured a discussion on immigration and UK asylum policy with Reform UK party leader Richard Tice. Ofcom is probing whether it met “due impartiality” rules on “matters relating to…public policy” and whether an “appropriately wide range of significant views must be included”. It caused enough complaints to push the watchdog into gear. 

GB News has arguably done more than any other outlet to boost fringe parties like Reform UK and Reclaim. And the friendly relationship between newish GB News recruit Lee Anderson MP, who now receives £100,000 for his presenting role with the station, and ex-Reclaim bigwig Martin Daubney bears investigating.

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“Reclaiming” the Right

Daubney, the former editor of defunct UK “lads’ mag” Loaded, has expressed views that are not only conspiratorial and parrot far-right rhetoric, but that also fly in the face of government policy too. 

Anderson has described Daubney as his “very good” friend, and praised him for “his no nonsense but politically unbiased approach to broadcasting”, adding that “GB News is probably the most balanced news channel”. 

Daubney, for his part, has called Anderson his “pal”, before defending him against the so-called “gutter press” and “Lefty activists” when other outlets spotted Anderson’s repeated gaffes on air. 

Anderson was interviewed last year by Daubney on Laurence Fox’s ‘Lozza’s Lock In’ show, a Reclaim party podcast, with the Reclaim leader and deputy leader acting as co-hosts. 

Anderson’s decision to appear at the event, described on Facebook Live as run “by the Reclaim Party” even drew scepticism from Conservative bible the Spectator, who questioned: “Why did a Conservative MP agree to appear in the communications output of another political party?”

The publication further argued that far from amplifying the Conservatives, Anderson’s appearance had in fact bolstered Reclaim instead. And the publication questioned whether Anderson’s views concerning food banks and food writer Jack Monroe were really the views of the Conservative Party at all. 

Given the willingness of Daubney and others in the Reclaim / Reform network to espouse views contrary to both Government policy and traditional Conservatism, the critique seems apt. 

Friends like These

Daubney’s conspiratorial tendencies are pretty clear to see. In February 2022, Daubney tweeted: “Question: the war in Ukraine should be the most filmed & shared in history. In the smartphone age, practically everyone is a citizen journalist. So where’s all the footage?” The footage, of course, was very easily accessible.

The same month on GB News, he repeated a line often used by Nigel Farage, that “if you jab a bear [Russia] with a stick for long enough, like Putin, he’s going to get angry”, calling the war in Ukraine “inevitable” and the fault of NATO.